Dr. David Warmflash
David Warmflash, M.D. is a physician, astrobiologist, space medicine researcher, science writer and communicator, and science lead for the U.S. team of the Planetary Society’s Phobos Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment. David is “The star stuff that has achieved consciousness” as he puts it.
He is a contributor for various magazines and has written numerous articles covering a range of science topics, from the search for extraterrestrial life and space exploration to the origins of life, genetics, neuroscience, biotechnology, and the history of science. He has also been looking into emerging capabilities for human hibernation/suspended animation.
David’s articles have appeared in various publications, including Wired UK, Discover Magazine, Scientific American, Genetic Literacy Project, and Cricket Media. Throughout 2018, he was doing a blog post series on the emergence of ancient science for Vision Learning, covering thinkers from history. Many of these ancient pioneers of science will also make an appearance in a book that David is preparing for release in mid-2019 dealing with humanity’s study and exploration of Earth’s moon, Moon: An Illustrated History: From Ancient Myths to the Colonies of Tomorrow.
David is currently a Consultant Medical Officer at Neurolief. He is also the active investigator for Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment at The Planetary Society since 2011 and has been a member of Aerospace Medical Association since 1994.
David was in the first cohort of NASA astrobiology postdoctoral trainees and served as a member of NASA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter Science Definition Team. He has collaborated with The Planetary Society on three experiments that have flown in space, including “the peace experiment” that involved an Israeli and a Palestinian student working with David as co-investigators. He contributed to the book George and the Blue Moon by Lucy Hawking and Stephen Hawking, and was interviewed for an article in the Kansas City Star concerning the accuracy of the science in the sci-fi TV series Orphan Black.
David earned his M.D. from the Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine, and has done postdoctoral work at Brandeis University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the NASA Johnson Space Center, where he was part of the NASA’s first cohort of astrobiology training fellows. He earned his Bachelor’s degree of Science in Zoology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
For four years, between 2004 and 2008, David was a scientist of Astrobiology and space medicine research at the University of Houston. He continued in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania until 2009 as the Post-Doctoral Scholar.
Briefly, David mentored a group of science technology environmental policy (STEP) interns at Scientists and Engineers for America who were leading the international legislation committee, the focus of which was on space, radiation, and nuclear weapons policy.
David is a visiting scientist for astrobiology at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He is also the initiator of the Planetary Society’s Growth of Bacterial Biofilms on Surfaces During Space Flight (GOBBSS) experiment, in which Israeli and Palestinian students joined together to send an astrobiology experiment on the ill-fated mission of NASA’s Columbia in January 2003.
About his latest book, Moon: An Illustrated History: From Ancient Myths to the Colonies of Tomorrow:
“Through the course of human history, the sight of the Moon has captivated humanity’s wildest imaginations, while its nightly presence has been a centerpiece of mythic and scientific hypotheses. David has beautifully chronicled our fascination with—and discoveries from—our nearest neighbor in Moon: An Illustrated History. This fine book should be considered required reading for armchair lunar explorers, young and old.” — Scott Parazynski, MD, NASA Space Shuttle astronaut (STS-66, 86, 95, 100, 120) and author of The Sky Below
Read Should the Moon be Quarantined? A story by David, which appeared in Scientific American.
Read his viewpoint about the Quest for Peace and Security and Assimilation and the Bi-National Confederation in the Palestine-Israel Journal.
Read about the risks of Spaceflight, and David’s opinion on The Human drive to explore space. Read through his contributions at Discover Magazine, Genetic Literacy Project, Muck Rack, Wired UK, Scientific American, RealClear Science, Afflictor, Leapsmag, and AAPS Blog.
Read his update on the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft mission. Read David’s comment on New Breeding Techniques in Why cannot organic farmers benefit from New Breeding Techniques? Read David’s report on NASA’s Attempt to Repeat Viking’s Search for Martian Organics.
Watch the Weekly Space Hangout from Oct 3rd, 2018 with David as guest.
Visit his LinkedIn profile and his ResearchGate profile. Follow him on Twitter. Read his blog Visionlearning.com.
